The car community has been masochistically obsessed with the idea of a Hellcat engine stuffed inside of a Jeep Gladiator since the Wrangler-based pickup truck debuted, despite the safety concerns about the swap straight from Jeep. But the Hellcat Gladiator exists nonetheless, and one could be yours for just $150,000.
The 707-horsepower Gladiator is for sale at a dealership in Phoenix called Mark Mitsubishi, as shared by The Drive last week. The actual list price is $147,992, if the extra $2,008 off influences your purchasing decision, and it’s listed as pre-owned with 1,456 miles.
There are logos for America’s Most Wanted 4x4 all over the pickup, which is a shop that advertises things like Hellcat, Demon and Hellephant engine swaps on Gladiators and Wranglers. This particular swap was done on a Gladiator Rubicon trim, which starts at $43,545 on the configurator with Jeep’s standard 285-HP, 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 in it. America’s Most Wanted 4x4 advertises its Gladiator Hellcat conversion kit—the important word there being “kit”—for $58,850.
The question, then, is whether the extra 422 HP, all swapped, pretty and ready to go, is worth the extra $100,000. The answer is “maybe if you use $100 bills as dish towels.” (Don’t do that. They will end up with more germs than they had when they went into the sink.)
But even if it seems like a big price premium, people have been oddly fascinated with the idea of a Hellcat Gladiator since the truck debuted last year, despite Jeep’s North American boss, Tim Kuniskis, saying it maybe wasn’t the safest idea. Here’s what he told Australian outlet Drive:
“Everybody always asks me that question: it fits. You know that. It fits like a glove,” he said.
“But the problem is that it fits like a glove and there is no air space around the engine and the whole external space of the vehicle so you have no crush space; you have nothing that can be used to absorb energy in a crash.
“It is not a problem to put it in - other than emissions and fuel economy - except it would never pass any crash tests, and that’s a problem.”
Ah, well. Life full of risks—and, so long as no one else is put in danger, it all depends on which ones we decide are worth it to take.